Global Courant 2023-05-10 23:32:49
FIRST ON FOX: Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su, President Biden’s nominee to become the department’s next secretary, instructed her staff not to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents searching for migrants undocumented while she was head of California’s Labor Commission, according to a memo discovered by Republicans.
When asked about the memo at her hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee last month, Su said she did not have access to the memo and could not “remember its exact contents.”
But Senator Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., got the document from California Labor & Workforce Development Agency Commissioner Stewart Knox.
The memo reads: “The staff of the Labor Commissioner must not voluntarily allow a federal immigration agent to enter any part of our office. The staff must ask the agent to leave our office, including the waiting room, and inform the agent that the “labour commissioner does not authorize to enter or search any part of our office. Doors leading to the inner office suite, and office doors that are generally locked or locked, must not be voluntarily opened for the agent.”
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Julie Su speaks at her nomination hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in Washington, DC, on April 20, 2023. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
If ICE agents refused to leave, the memo instructed staff to ask them to produce a search warrant.
“Staff are instructed to contact designated Labor Commissioner attorneys if an agent actually presents a warrant. If the agent states that he or she does not have a warrant, staff must again ask the agent to enter our office, including the waiting room, and declare that the Labor Commissioner does not consent to the officer entering or searching any part of our office,” the statement said.
The document also instructed staff to document all interactions with federal immigration agents and urged them to refuse to give ICE agents information that could help them find the person they are looking for.
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President Biden links arms with Julie Su as he nominates her to replace Marty Walsh as Labor secretary. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
It was sent to California Labor staff in July 2017, spurred by reports of a spate of ICE arrests at schools, homeless shelters and other locations, according to the text.
“Staff may also have heard of instances where ICE has actually appeared or called one of our offices and asked about a particular employee – most likely due to unlawful employer retaliation,” it said.
Su’s nomination appears to have hit a roadblock after she was pulled from committee in a party-line vote, as some moderate Democrats are unsure whether to confirm her. It is not yet clear when the Senate will hold a full vote.
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Senator Bill Cassidy got the 2017 memo after contacting California’s Labor Commission.
Senators opposed to Su’s nomination cite billions of dollars in losses from pandemic unemployment fraud under her oversight in California, and a labor position that industry groups have called anti-business.
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The White House has defended Su as a pro-worker, pro-union leader who would lead the department with similar policies to her predecessor, former Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh. Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment on the memo, but did not receive an immediate response.
Elizabeth Elkind is a political reporter for Fox News Digital.
